Wiggins Geraint A, Tyack Peter, Scharff Constance, Rohrmeier Martin
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4FZ, UK
Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 8LB, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 19;370(1664):20140099. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0099.
We consider the evolution of cognition and the emergence of creative behaviour, in relation to vocal communication. We address two key questions: (i) what cognitive and/or social mechanisms have evolved that afford aspects of creativity?; (ii) has natural and/or sexual selection favoured human behaviours considered 'creative'? This entails analysis of 'creativity', an imprecise construct: comparable properties in non-humans differ in magnitude and teleology from generally agreed human creativity. We then address two apparent problems: (i) the difference between merely novel productions and 'creative' ones; (ii) the emergence of creative behaviour in spite of high cost: does it fit the idea that females choose a male who succeeds in spite of a handicap (costly ornament); or that creative males capable of producing a large and complex song repertoire grew up under favourable conditions; or a demonstration of generally beneficial heightened reasoning capacity; or an opportunity to continually reinforce social bonding through changing communication tropes; or something else? We illustrate and support our argument by reference to whale and bird song; these independently evolved biological signal mechanisms objectively share surface properties with human behaviours generally called 'creative'. Studying them may elucidate mechanisms underlying human creativity; we outline a research programme to do so.
我们探讨认知的进化以及与发声交流相关的创造性行为的出现。我们提出两个关键问题：（i）进化出了哪些认知和/或社会机制，使得创造性得以展现？（ii）自然选择和/或性选择是否青睐被视为“创造性”的人类行为？这需要对“创造性”进行分析，这是一个不精确的概念：非人类中的类似属性在程度和目的论上与普遍认可的人类创造性有所不同。然后我们探讨两个明显的问题：（i）仅仅是新颖的作品与“创造性”作品之间的差异；（ii）尽管成本高昂，创造性行为却依然出现：这是否符合雌性选择尽管有不利条件（昂贵的装饰）却成功的雄性的观点；或者说能够产生大量复杂歌曲曲目的有创造性的雄性是在有利条件下成长起来的；或者是普遍有益的推理能力提高的一种体现；或者是通过改变交流方式不断加强社会联系的一个机会；还是其他什么？我们通过参考鲸鱼和鸟类的歌声来说明并支持我们的论点；这些独立进化的生物信号机制在客观上与通常被称为“创造性”的人类行为具有表面上的相似性。对它们的研究可能会阐明人类创造性背后的机制；我们概述了一个这样做的研究计划。
